American Idol

We dodged a bullet! In a conference call with the press on Wednesday afternoon, Nigel Lythgoe said that the planned duet between Mariah Carey and the extremely dead Marvin Gaye is off:

In a Wednesday conference call with reporters, American Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe offered updates on this year’s “Idol Gives Back” fundraising effort, to air Wednesday, April 9. For starters, Lythgoe cleared the air on talk that Mariah Carey would perform a duet with the late Marvin Gaye, a la Celine Dion and Elvis Presley a year ago. “Unfortunately, it’s not [happening],” he shared. “We couldn’t get the rights to music with Marvin, so we had to cancel it.” (Chalk up one unsettling/eerie bullet dodged.)

Marvin’s heirs undoubtedly said: No. No. No…

Ellen DeGeneres won’t be hosting Idol Gives Back from the Kodak theater after all. That part of the special will tape on Sunday to a paying crowed and will now by hosted by… Ryan Seacrest!

Lythgoe also addressed the breaking news that Ellen DeGeneres would not be able to shoulder half of the hosting duties for the evening. “Ellen, we were told, couldn’t do it due to a personal production pressure,” he said. Filling her shoes/sneakers will be… Ryan Seacrest! Will the seemingly busiest man in show business be worked even harder? Lythgoe shrugged off the notion. “We’ve got a lot of co-hosts, so it isn’t like last year,” he explained. “There are a lot of really good people coming on that stage to introduce people.”

And, that IGB twist I posted an item about earlier? I have a feeling that ain’t happening:

As previously announced, no one will get voted off the show during Idol Gives Back. The American Idol results show will air on the following night after Idol Gives Back. When asked if he considered creating some other type of carrot to get viewers to tune in, Lythgoe responded, “Yeah of course we did. For my money, this isn’t about a carrot. I don’t want to cheat the audience here. This is about a wonderful show with incredible talent involved with it, asking you to do something about what’s going on in the world, end of story. After that, carrots are just misleading the audience and stink.

Sources: TV Guide, Reality TV Magazine

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